Design-driven and human-centered
The Reach Network works with clients to develop a better understanding of opportunities for new service concepts and value propositions, within the scope of the technology platforms in their portfolio, and to co-develop new service offerings that augment and enhance the consumer experience. Together with our clients, we generate insights as to how they can better connect their products and services to the contemporary lifestyles of consumers. Depending on the culture, different tools and methods are employed, and the research process is always designed with partners who are embedded in the cultures involved.
A service innovation approach that is design-driven and human-centered is a very useful framework to look at the constellation of products and services on offer, analysing them individually and also how they relate to each other, and to identify what the opportunities for improvement are. Reach helps clients to better relate to their consumers, by empathising with their routines, preferences, motivations and concerns, with the overall objective to understand what new services could be a added to a successful new offering.
Mobility Services
A global car manufacturer was interested in enhancing their customer experience, and identifying opportunities for new value propositions. The purpose of this study was to explore and inspire the development of a new service offering around paying at gas stations, based on the technology platform of an existing product.
For this project STBY worked with minds & makers. Together, they interviewed a sample of German car drivers to learn about their behaviours and attitudes around payments and billing with respect to products and services around cars and mobility. These interviews were analysed and transformed into easy to present personal profiles, combined with customer insights and opportunity areas.
Publishing services
One of the largest academic publishers engaged STBY for an open innovation project, to explore new opportunities for their business based on current customer practices. Working across multiple countries (UK and Netherlands), we focused on lead users who we identified through a process of snowballing.
We conducted fieldwork and followed-up with meetings for the identification of opportunities (insight creation) and a co-creation workshop (idea generation). The results have been used to inform the vision and strategy for a new portfolio of services targeting a specific market segment. The concepts that came out of the workshops are currently being prototyped.
Throughout the concept development process the perspective of users/consumers is a leading element in selecting and elaborating on ideas for potential innovations. Services can be seen as a journey or a series of critical encounters between a customer and a service provider that take place over time and across channels. The service innovation process focuses on better integrating the organisation of service elements around the user experience and combining distributed organisational resources to create an optimal service offering.